"Bring The Pope To Justice"! Glenn Beck's TV Ratings Are In Free-Fall! I'm Sick Of All This Whining About Illegal Immigrants!!!

There is a two-page story in the May 3 issue of Newsweek Magazine that's titled, "Bring The Pope To Justice" and it's written by Christopher Hitchens.

I know. A good number of you think this is another example of "Pope Bashing" and it's not fair.

Well, I'll accept that if you can quit acting like an ostrich, get your head out of the sand, read this story and then, with a straight face, tell me you think it's "Pope Bashing".

I mean, there is some serious damning information in this story. Especially damning is the stuff he did as a Cardinal before he became the Pope.

We have a Cardinal like that here in Los Angeles. You might have heard of him. Cardinal Roger Mahony is the guy who wrote that blistering commentary about the new Arizona law regarding illegal immigrants. Cardinal Mahony has provided lots of "cover" for illegal immigrants and he also seems to have provided "cover" for pedophile priests in the form of hundreds of millions of dollars used as "cover/hush money".

Speaking of that new Arizona law, an attempt is being made to get that law overturned. And it might happen. I say that because I remember Proposition 187, the anti-illegal immigration measure that was passed by California voters in 1994. A measure that was overturned by activist judges.

Look, I have friends of mine who feel sorry for illegal immigrants. I have one friend who keeps reminding me about when Mexicans used to own parts of California. I guess if I wanted to remind my friend of something it would be to recall a song sung by Chad and Jeremy which included these words; "That was yesterday and yesterday's gone!"

Bleeding heart newspapers like the Los Angeles and New York Times constantly defend illegal immigrants as being beneficial to us and pose arguments about deportation causing the breaking up of families. First of all, that's a bunch of B.S., because I've never heard of someone being deported who wasn't allowed to take his or her family with him or her.

And let's talk about that "beneficial to us" illegal immigrant argument. When an honest look is made at the whole picture as opposed to cherry picked parts of the whole picture, what we learn is that illegal immigrants are way more about taking FROM us as opposed to contributing FOR us!

And here's something I've never been able to understand. What is defensible about people who are doing something ILLEGAL?!? I mean, the way the law is written now, an illegal immigrant is BREAKING the law. If the majority of Americans want anyone to be able to come to this country anytime they want, CHANGE the law! But if you don't, then why can't we ENFORCE the law?

And speaking of "the law"...I told you that some people are trying to get the new Arizona law that was voted on to be overturned. I also told you about the anti-illegal immigrant law passed by California voters in 1994 that WAS overturned!

Think about that paragraph I just wrote.

Now think about public officials that complain about the large number of people who don't vote!

WELLLL....If things we want are voted for, passed, but then overturned, is it that hard to figure out WHY so many people don't vote?

Just askin'...

Couple of other things...

I think most of you have heard of Glenn Beck, right? Radio show, TV show, magazine covers, lots of publicity, etc., etc. Yes, he's also able to "cry on cue".

Which he might be doing when this latest Glenn Beck story gets a lot publicity. Since January, Glenn Beck has lost 1/3 of his television audience. A new "low mark" for Glenn Beck was less than a week ago when he had 1.82 million viewers. Shoot, there are some bloggers who have more viewers/readers than that!

Abortion...

Did you know that a number of state legislatures are doing their darndest to make abortions illegal or very hard to get? Including women who want abortions because they were raped or were incest victims. You would think for reasons like that, being allowed to have an abortion would be a "slam dunk".

Think about this for a minute. You want to have an abortion because you were raped or because some idiot relative forced you to have sex with him. If the mental stress of the crime you had to endure wasn't bad enough, now you have to constantly be reminded of what happened to you while your stomach gets bigger?

Some time ago, I told you (in this blog) about my personal abortion experience. I didn't want it to happen, I tried to talk her out of it and I was very disappointed when it did happen.

Despite that personal and gut wrenching experience, I still believe in a woman's right to choose.

ENTERTAINMENT STUFF...

I am very pissed off about what happened on "American Idol" last night. Siobhan Magnus was eliminated. Now there are only five contestants who are trying to become the next "American Idol". To me, Siobhan Magnus was and has been American Idol's most interesting and creative performer this season. I agree with those who have suggested she's a female Adam Lambert. I don't think she's as good as Lambert, but Lambert is 6 or 7 years older than Magnus and I think she has the potential to become as good as Lambert. No matter. She has left the building. Big bummer.

No "big bummer" Tuesday night on "American Idol". In fact, it was the exact opposite of a "big bummer" night. Some are saying it was this season's best show and I'm inclined to agree with that. It most definitely was Ryan Seacrest's best night as the host. And not just of this season. I think it was his best night ever.

The (then) six contestants had to pick songs from the Shania Twain catalogue. Shania Twain was their mentor, so one by one, they performed for Shania and she gave them advice on how they could improve their performances for Tuesday night's show.

For those of you who don't know anything about Shania Twain, in addition to having written all of her songs, she is also "very easy on the eyes", super sexy and has a smile that lights up the room. Twain did something that a lot of the mentors don't do. She showed up for the performances, sat behind the judges and the television cameras showed her reactions to what the singing contestants were doing with her songs that they had chosen.

For the first time in maybe the history of "American Idol", all of the contestants were great! Shania Twain was seen showing many smiles of approval and this turned out to be a show that was big time fun to watch. And yes, we knew that whoever got eliminated the next night would be someone who had performed very, very well.

Next week, the five remaining contestants will be singing Frank Sinatra songs.

After "American Idol's" Tuesday show, the new "Glee" was on Fox and that show was their best show of the season.

Did you see "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" on NBC, Wednesday night? It featured Sharon Stone playing a District Attorney in the first of what will be four episodes of that show and she was terrific! "L & O: SVU" has been great all season, but the Sharon Stone inclusion makes the show even better.

Season best show for "24", Monday night on Fox.

Annnd....After several weeks of reruns, "The Good Wife" finally presented a new episode on CBS. An episode that showed "The Good Wife" is back with a vengeance!

THOUGHTS AND OR COMMENTS? Write to me at scottstjames@sbcglobal.net and I will respond to you immediately. If you write to the blog, there's no way for me to know your email address so I won't be able to respond to you. Again... scottstjames@sbcglobal.net and I will respond.

THE NEXT BLOG? Barring unforseen circumstances, late Wednesday night, May 5.
GO LAKERS!!!

Bring The Pope To Justice! Glenn Beck's TV Ratings Are In Free-Fall! I'm Sick Of All This Whining About Illegal Immigrants!!!

After completing the new blog at a little after two this morning, what I refer to as, "the blog people" totally screwed me by losing the whole column I wrote when I hit the "publish post" button. I have no retrieval recourse.

Needless to say, I'm whacha call "deflated".

What you see in the headlines are three of the subjects I will write about later today after I get re-energized.

Bad New Gallup Poll For President Obama!! Italian Newspapers Denounce The Pope!! "Value Added Tax"?! A Bad "Look At Me" Stunt By Ryan Seacrest!!!

One of the topics last week was the "gripe" expressed by some Tea Party people about the feeling that poor people were being treated much better by the Obama administration than middle class and rich people and the biggest complaint seemed to be about children. Specifically, that poor adults who can't take care of themselves without government assistance money, are having children that will result in these poor adults getting MORE government money.

As I stated last week, I think the Tea Party people have a legitimate gripe. I also think something should be done about it, but I don't know exactly what CAN be done about it that's legal or wouldn't cause a lot of people to raise holy hell about any "solution" that comes to my mind.

So I asked if any of you readers had any thoughts on this subject.

I received a few responses/ideas from people who didn't want their responses/ideas printed, but one long time reader tied this problem into the illegal immigration problem and granted me permission to print his response. As you will see, this responding reader is also in favor of the new Arizona law involving illegal immigrants. As I stated in last week's blog, I'm in favor of the new Arizona law as well.

This response comes from a long time reader of this blog who also happens to be a man I've known for a lot of years. In fact, when I was on television every night, I worked with one of his children.

Bill Mouzis is his name. Decorated World War II veteran. And for those of you who know your Rock 'n Roll Radio history, you know about what was known as "Boss Radio". And here in Los Angeles, the "Boss Radio" station was 93/KHJ. And Bill Mouzis was the "Boss Engineer" during that legendary station's glory years. I got here too late for KHJ, but I did manage to work a little with Bill when he was at Gene Autry's KMPC in the 80's. Bill Mouzis was revered by a large number of radio people who ended up in the Radio Hall of Fame, because these Hall of Famer's knew that Bill Mouzis was a big reason they "shined" while they were broadcasting.

Okay...That's a little bit of Bill Mouzis's background. As I've learned, he's also whacha call, "A Concerned Citizen". Lifetime Catholic, but very disappointed in church leaders who dragged their feet on this pedophile priest business. I could go on and on, but here's what he wrote regarding the gripe expressed by the Tea Party people;

Scott,

As for children of the poor, you are dealing with God's creation, something that has to be carefully dealt with because the children themselves are not to blame.
Let us be downright realistic about this whole thing and recognize it as an illegal immigrant problem of Hispanic origin that enables these poor people to irresponsibly rely on the U.S. tax paying public to support them as they carelessly have more children than they can ever afford or support, even in their own country.

Certainly mandatory abortions cannot be considered nor castration be forced on poor fathers. Quite frankly, solving the illegal immigration problem with proper arrests and deportations would certainly alleviate the need for the U.S. taxpayer to literally raise these children. Controlling it by deportation is obviously the most difficult to accomplish, but then again, if we can send people to the moon or give away billions of dollars in supporting two wars and also giving it to the rich banks and corporations, we certainly can find a means to send them back to their countries in an orderly fashion.

Amnesty does nothing for the problem, but rewards it, and enables it to continue. We can no longer afford to be the world's keeper.

Bill Mouzis

Thanks for your thoughts, Bill.

So...Bill thinks deportation is the answer.

But what about adult citizens who were born here and are poor? Poor, adult American citizens who receive government assistance. Poor, adult American citizens who receive additional government assistance for children they have that they can't afford to support.

Look, when the subject of children born to illegals in this country are given automatic citizenship status IN this country argument comes up, I want to PUKE! I've said it before and I'll say it again; THAT law needs to be OUT-lawed and CHANGED!!!

Common sense tells us that poor LEGAL citizens here who are getting our tax money so they can survive are citizens who should NOT be allowed to have CHILDREN they can't afford!

Bill Mouzis is right when he says mandatory abortions can't be considered. All sorts of holy hell would be raised about that and the holiest of hell would come from Catholic Church leaders who (in essence) did nothing about pedophile priests, but they'd be all over some sort of mandatory abortion statute and you know what? I WOULD AGREE WITH THEM!

I believe Bill is also right when he says castration can't be forced upon poor fathers.

I've thought about this a lot lately and here's what I'm kicking around in MY mind...

MANDATORY ADOPTIONS!

I don't know exactly how something like this would be worded to make it legal, but in essence, here's what I would like the law to state. "If you and your spouse or companion are too poor to support yourselves and you require (and receive) government assistance money, you cannot add children to your home. If you DO have a child while you're still accepting government assistance money because you can't support yourselves, you will be required to give up that child for adoption. No ifs ands or buts."

Okay...That's my idea for a solution to this problem.

I will wholeheartedly read any thoughts and or comments YOU have about this. Write to me at scottstjames@sbcglobal.net

HEADLINES IN ITALIAN NEWSPAPERS AREN'T FAVORABLE TO THE POPE!

This outrageous pedophile priest business isn't going away anytime soon. In Italian newspapers, the Pope and his associates are seeing headlines like the two examples I'm about to give you; "THE VATICAN MUST PAY FOR ITS SINS" and... "ARREST PAPA RATZINGER".

As a matter of fact, newspapers all over Europe are on top of this scandal. Here in the United States, the Pope's popularity poll numbers have dropped dramatically, but he's not the only world leader who's having poll problems.

A brand new Gallup Poll shows President Obama's fifth quarterly poll score to be a 48.8% job approval. By comparison, George W. Bush's fifth quarterly poll score was 78.5%, the best in modern history.

But also by comparison, Jimmy Carter's fifth quarterly poll score was 48% and Ronald Reagan's fifth quarterly poll score was 46.3%.

As the late and great sportscaster Jim Healy used to say, "I don't make 'em up, pally!"

And speaking of President Obama...

Did you hear about this V.A.T. that's being considered by President Obama? Those are the initials for the words, "Value Added Tax".

I can't explain it to you because it's complicated. But it's not too complicated for me to not know that it's scary as hell.

Gang, we all need to stay on top of our elected representatives about this.

I know we have a "deficit" we need to get under control and maybe this Value Added Tax won't be as painful as it sounds like it might be, but if we need to do something drastic to try to improve our deficit, I have two ideas that (to me) wouldn't be painful. And those ideas are....

GET THE HELL OUT OF IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN!!!

And speaking of President Obama, 2....

What I'm about to do now is to explain where a little joke about President Obama was sent to me from and then I'll tell the joke. If you're a long time reader of this blog, you know that I'm a lifetime Republican who voted for Obama. When you read this joke, you might think I've changed my mind about President Obama. Well, I haven't. Not yet. I'm printing this joke because it made me laugh. And I hope it makes you laugh, too. No matter what your political preference is.

This joke will be a lot shorter than my explanation of who sent it to me will be.

Ron Rice sent me this joke. I've known Ron since the day he hired me to be the M.C. of a beauty pageant he was sponsoring in the mid 80's. I would eventually be interested in writing a script about his life that would hopefully be made into a film. When he found out how thorough I was becoming regarding my research, I think he began to have second thoughts because all of a sudden, people I was trying to interview, developed cases of "lockjaw".

But we have remained friends and just before he sold his business, he invited me to be a judge for a big beauty pageant he was sponsoring in Las Vegas in, I think, 2006 or 2007 or so.

Ron Rice was a chemistry teacher who invented the suntan lotion known as Hawaiian Tropic.

He became known as (among other things) "The Hugh Hefner of Daytona Beach".

He has a mansion in Ormond Beach, Florida which is right next to Daytona. The Atlantic Ocean is walking distance from his mansion and I know this because when I visited there, I did my daily workout runs on the sand there. Among other amenities, his mansion features a stream you walk around. But what his mansion was really known for, was the large amount of beautiful women who were always there. No one ever needed to ask Ron why he was always smiling. Or, from time to time, exhausted. Yeah, he was smiling then, too.

If you're a guy, you're bound to have seen at least one of his beauty pageants, because most of them were televised.

Ron Rice sold Hawaiian Tropic a few years ago and he's now in a modeling kind of business with his beautiful daughter, Sterling.

And yeah, he's still smiling.

Ron Rice also sent me this joke;

Dear Lord,

This year you took my favorite actor, Patrick Swayzie. You took my favorite actress, Farah Fawcett. You took my favorite singer, Michael Jackson. I just wanted to let you know, my favorite president is Barack Obama. Amen.

ENTERTAINMENT STUFF...

I'll get to the Ryan Seacrest story in a minute.

Question for CBS: Are we ever going to see a new episode of "The Good Wife" again? I mean, it's rerun after rerun after rerun. And that's bound to cause a lot of people to do some kind of run to another channel. Like NBC where "Parenthood" is showing new episodes or FX where "Justified" is showing new episodes. Those two shows I just mentioned are both on at the same "The Good Wife" is and both of those shows are very GOOD shows!

What was it? Four months before Fox showed a new episode of "Glee"? Well, they're back and back with a bang! Jane Lynch's portrayal of "Sue Sylvester" is uber cool and so is the whole show. Tuesday nights, right after "American Idol" on Fox.

Are you watching (what are) the final episodes of "24"? I've seen every episode of "24" and I'm really happy to see they're going out with their guns blazing.

Did you watch the "Idol Gives Back" show on Fox tonight? This is something that "American Idol" has been doing for a few years now. The two guests at the beginning of tonight's show were President Barack Obama and his wife. Some major, major entertainers performed, we saw examples of what the charity money is being used for and yes, it was also "elimination night", meaning that another singing contestant was voted off the show.

And now there are six still standing and dreaming of becoming the next "American Idol".

If you're a regular viewer of "American Idol", there's a good chance you think that Crystal Bowersox will be the eventual winner. She's certainly the favorite, but she isn't my favorite. My favorite is the singer that the judges "don't get". Siobhan Magnus. I mean, I really like her!

The singer who was sent home tonight was Tim Urban and that brings me to the Ryan Seacrest story I alluded to in the headline(s) of this blog.

Ryan, oh Ryan, oh Ryan!!!

I am told that a lot of blogs and entertainment magazines have recently been running with the same story-line which is (in essence), "What's up with Ryan Seacrest?"

Because Seacrest has a highly rated a morning radio show here in Los Angeles, my good friend and LARadio.com owner/publisher, Don Barrett became interested in these new "Seacrest stories" and then he did a little investigating. He saw a story I wrote on the 17th of February about some Seacrest "strangeness" and then Barrett wrote a story in LARadio.com in which he stated that I have a "good sniffer" when it comes to stories like this and to strengthen his observation, he cited television and radio commentaries I had/have done in the past.

Thank you very much, my friend and here comes another Seacrest story that all these hot shot writers who sit very close to the judges and performers "didn't get" how wrong Seacrest was and why he was wrong... Orrrr... if they did "get it", were too scared to run with it because they were afraid they'd lose their good seats.

It involves the performer who was voted off the show tonight. Tim Urban.

Urban has been a judges "whipping boy" for most of the time he was on the show, but he took their criticisms with a smile (I mean, this dude was always smiling) and he was becoming known as a "teflon" kind of performer because nothing "stuck" and he always managed to get enough votes to make it to the next round. And that was exasperating to the judges and they made it clear it was exasperating.

Before I go any further, I feel the need to say that I do not think Urban was ever a serious candidate to be the next "American Idol", but what Ryan Seacrest did to Tim Urban on "Elvis night", April 13, was off the charts unfair and the fact that Seacrest has never publicly been called out on it is exasperating to me!

I wasn't at the show, so I didn't see what happened or I would have written about this a week ago. What happened was not shown on television, either. There was a mention of Seacrest saying something about a little of what happened in the L.A. Times the next day, but there was no elaboration the likes of which I'm going to give you right now.

Shortly after Urban began singing, Ryan Seacrest, for reasons known only to himself, decided to dance with someone. I believe it was a guy, but no matter. He was dancing with someone and people in the audience started laughing. Tim Urban stated later that evening that he was distracted because he heard the laughter and out of the corner of his eye, saw what was going on. Urban, doing the "show must go on" thing, finished his song, said nothing about what Ryan had done and none of the judges asked him about it.

Here's my take....Tim Urban, judges whipping boy, is one of the seven final contestants, he's singing for "his life" and a clown, who should absolutely know better, decides to dance, didn't stop when the laughter distraction began and after Urban finished singing, Seacrest (out loud) thanked his dance partner for "the dance".

When Tim Urban heard the laughter and saw what was going on while he was singing, he would have become my hero for life if he would have immediately done one thing; Stopped singing! And then, while looking straight at Seacrest saying something like, "The audience seems to be enjoying what you're doing, Ryan. Why don't we just have the musicians start up again and when you're finished, let me know and I'll start singing again."

Because of the high stakes and the Urban "back story", a "back story" Seacrest was very aware of, what Seacrest did, to me, was despicable.

Yeah, yeah, yeah....I can hear some of you saying, "Lighten up, Scott! You said it yourself! This guy wasn't going to win anyway!!! Seacrest was just having a little fun!"

Here's a news-flash, folks! What happened last Tuesday night is anther example of what has caused other writers to ask the question, "What's up with Ryan Seacrest?"

And here's the answer; The same thing that began happening on or about February 17. Ryan Seacrest's mirror has convinced him he IS "American Idol"!

THOUGHTS AND OR COMMENTS? Write to me at scottstjames@sbcglobal.net and I will respond to you immediately. If you write to the blog, there's no way for me know what your email address is, so I won't be able to respond to you. Again... scottstjames@sbcglobal.net and I will respond immediately. All "Anonymous" emails are ignored.

THE NEXT BLOG? Barring something unforseen, late next Wednesday night, April 28. And maybe THEN I'll finally write the piece on "death".

A Tea Party BIG Gripe! The Vatican Says, "Call the Cops!" Wasn't Osama bin Laden The Reason We Went To Afghanistan? New Arizona Law Rocks!!!

The last couple of weeks, my main commentaries have been about the pedophile priest scandals, scandals that have, for the most part, (and there's no nice way to say this) "been covered up" by higher ups in the Catholic church.

I've stated my views. Instead of sending guilty pedophile priests somewhere to pray away their crimes, I want to see them locked up in jails. Same deal with Bishops, Cardinals and even the Pope if "accessory" crimes can be proven.

As readers of this blog know, I seldom print emails that you send me, but I respond to every email that is sent to me at scottstjames@sbcglobal.net and more often than not, there is a lot of "back and forth" that takes place after that.

There are other subjects that will be covered later in this blog, but right now, I'm going to set the stage for two emails about the pedophile priest business that were sent to me. I will print these emails word for word as they were sent to me and I will print word for word the reply I wrote to one of the emails. The other email was written by someone I've known for a long time and my response doesn't need to be printed because all I said to him was, "I love this note. Is it okay if I print it?" His answer was, "Help yourself." and it will be the second email that I will print.

Again...Both of these emails are responses to my commentaries about the pedophile priest scandals. The first email you'll read will be in response to my first commentary, March 31-April 1. The second email will be in response to my second commentary, April 7-8.

Mike Anderson is the Editor/Publisher of St. Louis Media.Net (STLMedia.net) and he's been in his current position for many years. Mike has developed quite a following in St. Louis. He's a former radio broadcaster who is now a local critic of radio stations in the St. Louis area. He's also a man who served his country during the Vietnam mess and he has strong opinions about the national political landscape and he thinks the coverage of the pedophile priests....Well, I'm not going to put words in his mouth. The email he wrote speaks for itself. One more thing about Mike Anderson; He has taken the time to read this blog on an occasional basis, but I won't refer to him as a "fan" of this blog. In two other instances, Mike has written responses that consisted of two words. And those two words were, "All crap!" Like I said, I don't think he's a "fan".

Here comes the word for word response to my first commentary about the Catholic pedophile priest scandal that Mike Anderson wrote just before 6 in the morning on April 1.

Scott: I hope that you spend as much time, energy and emotion writing about the sexual perversions and molestations committed by:

Public school teachers
College instructors
Police
Welfare agency workers
Doctors
Counselors
Psychiatrists
Rabbis
Ministers of faiths other than Catholic
Most Muslim men (yes, man-boy love is in the Koran, and it's not forbidden)...and, of course, show biz perverts like Roman Polanski and Woody Allen.

But these transgressions will receive pale light in the LA Times, the most anti-Catholic newspaper in the U.S.

By the way, the NY Daily News, never a fan of the Church, has an interesting editorial today factually and historically refuting the false crap published yesterday by Maureen Dowd and the NY Times. You should read it.

Did the accused priests do these terrible things? Yes, most of them probably did (there are always false accusations, as we have seen). Should priests be held to a higher standard of behavior because of the positions they hold in their parish and surrounding communities? Most definitely. Is the Catholic Church the only agency infected with these sick types? Certainly not. But as noted by all relevant authorities, Catholic priests are responsible for less than 2% of these crimes. Someone, somewhere else, is responsible for the other 98.5%.

Maybe if the net was cast a little more widely we could end this blight.

Mike Anderson, Editor/Publisher, STLMedia.net

That was Mike Anderson's word for word response to my first commentary about this subject. What you'll now read is my word for word reply to Mike Anderson.

Hi Mike,

Mike, your (obviously) well thought out observations represent what is proven to me week after week after week. I get deep thinkers who constantly say (in essence), "You want responses, big boy? Chew on THESE!"

And chew I do.

Mike, I have no quarrel with examples of people who have other occupations other than Catholic priests and THEIR leaders/bosses, etc.

And when I'm presented with enough proven instances over the length of time that these outrages have occurred, I will jump on my horse and ride in that direction as well.

Until the last few days, I've been a guy (like most) who shook his head a little when a new "abuse" story was told. Shook my head, moved on and depending on what time of year it was, said something like, "How 'BOUT dem Cowboys!?!"

But NOW, as I stated in my headline, my reaction is, "ENOUGH!!!"

And I have written the first commentary I've EVER written on this subject.

Thanks to YOUR response-commentary, you can be assured I'll be looking in other directions as well. And hoping there is nothing like what has been allowed to "slide" for as many years and in as many countries as this has.

Brother veteran, thanks for caring enough to share (as the late Paul Harvey used to say) "The REST of the story!"

Okay. You've seen Mike Anderson's email to me and you've seen my reply to Mike Anderson.

Here's a little background on the second email I'm about to print.

It's in response to what I think should happen to child abusing priests.

The email was sent to me by Claude Hall, a man who with his lovely wife Barbara, lives in Las Vegas. At one time, Claude Hall was a college professor who taught writing and he has given me a great deal of encouragement ever since I began writing this blog.

As I've told you in previous blogs and as you can see on the short bio that is to the right of this blog, I spent a lot of years as a radio broadcaster. I've been a music man, a general information talk man and a sports man. I've also been a program director and a music director. I mention this because when I got into the broadcast business, there was one guy that every broadcaster read religiously. Claude Hall. When (for many years) he was writing a column called "Vox Jox" in Billboard Magazine. I mean, the amount of readers this guy had was off the charts. Among other great radio names, Claude Hall was the first to write about Don Imus when Imus was in Stockton or Sacramento, California. Claude Hall really believed in Imus, but he also really believed in people like Joey Reynolds, Robert W. Morgan and so many other broadcasters who eventually became to be known as "Legendary Broadcasters".

And I'm proud to call Claude Hall a friend of mine.

Yeah, he's still writing. A new column is posted every Sunday morning on RDN (Radio Daily News) and it's easy to find by googling it.

So...Because we're friends, his word for word email begins the way any other friend's email would begin, because in it's own way, it's a continuation of a previous conversation.

Again...This is Claude Hall's word for word response to my thoughts about appropriate punishment for child abusing priests.

Scott,

I'm not that far removed from the Old West and the Old West methodologies for solving problems. Although he didn't talk about it, my grand father Smith was on more than one vigilante committee; the sheriff was too far away and had other problems. And my great grand father was a territorial marshal evidently working out of Ft. Smith, Arkansas, and shot villains for a living.

But this note is about a college professor of mine. Quite famous. Robert Montgomery. He once mentioned in class that as a kid they used to hang strangers passing through the county. He said, "If they got away, they went on out to California and, well, that explains California."

Montgomery was a great college economics professor and a great wit, but a little rash when it comes to punishment, I think.

Child abusers should be castrated. Simple as that. Not as punishment, but as a deterrent...and if convicted, of course. Known child abusers who escape the law should be quietly tarred and feathered and castrated. I think my grand father, a Bible-toting man as they say, would have volunteered for the committee.

Claude Hall

Okay. There's Claude Hall's response. As I stated earlier, the only reply I wrote to him was to ask his permission to print this note he sent me.

Oh...Early in his note, he mentioned his old college professor, Robert Montgomery and referred to Montgomery as being quite famous.

Doctor Robert Montgomery helped pinpoint the two atomic bomb drops on Japan.

TWO MORE CATHOLIC CHURCH ITEMS...

In response to the world wide questioning about the Vatican's seeming desire to avoid bad publicity by "covering up" child abusing priests, the Vatican has issued new guidelines that say in essence, crimes MUST now be reported to the POLICE!

Better late than never, huh?

Here's the other item. I have received a lot of emails from people who describe themselves as Catholics and every one of them has said they believe the "Celibacy Requirement" for priests should be eliminated.

I agree with that. But what do the rest of you think? Yea or Nay on eliminating the celibacy requirement for Catholic priests? Tell me by writing to, scottstjames@sbcglobal.net

ARIZONA'S NEW ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT LAW!!!

Did you hear about this? Arizona lawmakers approved a law that in essence directs local police to determine whether people are in the country legally. Gang, this is HUGE!!! Especially if we can get other states to start doing this as well.

Some of you are probably saying something like, "Aren't police already doing that?" and the answer is, "NO!", because in most places, it's illegal for our police to "bother" people who are here illegally unless they've committed some other crime. In other words, if you're here legally, do something illegal and you get arrested. But if you're here illegally, you're allowed (in essence) automatic amnesty for that crime. Sound confusing?

A BIG TEA PARTY "GRIPE"!!!

A new NY Times/CBS News poll shows that Tea Party people think the Obama Administration is more interested in favoring the "poor" while offering virtually nothing to those who are "middle class" or "rich". Favoritism that results in "A welfare class that lives for having children and receiving payment from the government for having those children".

Short Commentary: At the risk of sounding like I'm stepping on the downtrodden, can we talk about this for a minute?

If someone is too poor to care for themselves, should they be allowed to have CHILDREN?!? Children that we the taxpayers will have to pay for? In addition to already paying for the parents?

I think we should have a way to STOP that from happening. Because I think what we're allowing to happen is WRONG! So, yes. I'm agreeing with the Tea Party people about this. But what can we legally DO about it?

Any ideas? Please, please write to me at scottstjames@sbcglobal.net

THE ECONOMY!!!

The economy getting any better where you are? I can tell you two types of businesses that are whacha call "booming". The other day, I stopped by to visit with a bankruptcy lawyer I know. He has a huge suite and it was difficult to find a place to sit. The other "booming" business is the "Bill Collector" business.

Everything else? Not so good.

And we keep hearing about lobbyists throwing millions of dollars at Washington lawmakers so that these lawmakers won't see to it that financial reforms that we desperately need are instituted and enforced.

OUR TWO STUPID AND EXPENSIVE WARS!!!

Iraq? We went there because of a terrible lie told by people we're supposed to trust and what have we accomplished besides a lot of dead and seriously wounded American soldiers and increasing this big "deficit" that everyone seems to be worried about?

And then there's Afghanistan. Didn't we go there to capture or kill Osama bin Laden? Like eight years or so ago? How's that working out? Besides having more dead and seriously wounded American soldiers while the current president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai is threatening to join the Taliban. Meanwhile, what are we really doing there besides protecting their poppy fields while our DEFICIT goes up some more!

After all this HEAVY stuff, let's.....

What you're about to read is an "oldie but a goody". And my sincere thanks to reader Dave who sent me what I'm about to print. This joke was sent to me several years ago, but when Dave sent it to me a couple of days ago and I laughed AGAIN, I thought you readers might laugh (again) if you haven't seen it for a while.

Here goes...

A farmer decided he wanted to go to town and see a movie. The ticket agent asked, "Sir, what's that on your shoulder?"

The old farmer said, "That's my pet rooster Chuck. Wherever I go, Chuck goes."

"I'm sorry sir," said the ticket agent. "We can't allow animals in the theater."

The old farmer went around the corner and stuffed Chuck down his overalls. Then he returned to the booth, bought a ticket, and entered the theater.

He sat down next to two old widows named Mildred and Marge.

The movie started and the rooster began to squirm. The farmer unbuttoned his fly so Chuck could stick his head out and watch the movie.

"Marge," whispered Mildred.

"What?" said Marge.

"I think that guy next to me is a pervert."

"What makes you think so?" asked Marge.

"He undid his pants and he has his thing out", whispered Mildred.

"Well, don't worry about it", said Marge. "At our age, we've seen 'em all."

"I thought so too", said Mildred. "But this one's eatin' my popcorn!"

ENTERTAINMENT STUFF...

This is already an extra long blog, so I'll keep this brief.

A couple of days ago, I saw a film on one of the HBO channels that I hadn't seen since it was released in 1995. "The American President". This was written by Aaron Sorkin, the guy who created and wrote most of the episodes of "The West Wing". Martin Sheen is in this film along with a number of other actors who appeared on "The West Wing", but the two main characters are played by Michael Douglas and Annette Bening. I thought the chemistry between those two fine actors was off the charts adorable and I ended up loving this film! AGAIN!!!

This week's "American Idol". The music the contestants had to choose from this week was "Elvis Presley" music and this week's music mentor was a perfect choice. Adam Lambert. He finished 2nd in last year's "American Idol" but there isn't a person alive who cares about that show who doesn't think Lambert deserved to WIN, including the guy who DID win.

Anyway, I thought Lambert was a terrific "mentor", I loved the Elvis medley the nine contestants sang tonight (results night) and I loved Lambert's new single which he sang during tonight's show.

Two contestants were eliminated. The remaining contestants are five guys and two women. The view here is that none of the five guys are as good as either of the two women. The singer I look forward the most to hearing and watching is, Siobhan Magnus who has been described by some as being a female Adam Lambert.

THOUGHTS AND OR COMMENTS? Please write to me at scottstjames@sbcglobal.net. I will respond to you immediately. If you write to the blog, there's no way for me to know your email address so I will be unable to respond to you. Again... scottstjames@sbcglobal.net and I will respond to you immediately. All "Anonymous" emails are ignored.

THE NEXT BLOG? Unless something unforseen comes up, late next Wednesday night, April 21 and maybe then I'll finally do the piece on "death" that I've been saying I will write about.

Reaction To My Pedophile Priests Commentary...Mainstream Media Is Fox News...Sean Hannity's "Charity" Downgraded...Superstar Actors In Liberace Film!!

Before we get into our headline stories, here are a couple of other things...

While at a recent social event, I heard a guy yell at another guy, these words; "This is AMERICA! Speak SPANISH!

Think about that, folks.

Oh...You don't have to think about it? Well, neither did I.

As we all know, a lot of people are unemployed. Some of you readers of this blog are unemployed. Shoot, I'M unemployed and have been for most of the last several years.

I know a lot of unemployed folks who have been unemployed for quite a while. They all want to work, but no matter what business we're talking about, there's been no hiring. Just a hell of a lot of FIRING!!!

Buuuut....Those of you lucky enough to have a job? It ain't the same, is it? I mean your working environment isn't the same now as it was when you got the job, is it? The vast majority of you are now required to do MORE than what you did when you got hired, right? A LOT more!! Like (at least) TWO jobs more!! And for LESS MONEY than what you were getting for the ONE job you were hired for!!!

It's a dirty little secret most folks don't want to talk about at all. If you tell this to someone who doesn't have to work or is too old to work, the odds are pretty good they won't believe you because they're still sold on the illusion that everything is still okay, in the good ol' USA. And you have probably learned (the hard way) that it's best to not talk about it.

But not talking about it, doesn't ease the pain, does it?

Just know that what's written in the previous four paragraphs is something I'm very familiar with. I've been hearing stories about this for almost 15 years and I'm very sympathetic to what you've gone through and may well still be going through. And yes, I'm also sympathetic to those of you who have (in essence) "given up".

THE PEDOPHILE PRIEST SCANDAL, PART 2!!!

I wrote a commentary about this last week. And a large number of you wrote emails to me about what I had written.

I read all emails in the order they are sent. And the first email I got was passionate, well thought out and the writer's conclusion (in essence) was that I had been unfair and he listed other occupations that had employees who have been guilty of sexually abusing children.

I have never met the man who wrote this email, but I've spoken with him on the phone, we have had friendly email conversations about other subjects, we are brother military veterans and he's a highly respected and well read writer who lives in the "middle" of our country.

I gotta tell ya, gang....When I finished reading his email to me, which was, as I mentioned, the first email about my pedophile priest commentary, I figured I was going to have a long day writing long response emails to lots of you readers.

As those of you who have written to me know, unless you try to hide under the "Anonymous" umbrella, I send a reply email to every email I receive.

And my reply to my "brother military veteran" and "brother commentary writer" was a "thank you" for his thoughtful response but (as he knows) I didn't back away from my criticism of lawbreaking pedophile priests. And I don't back off from my belief that Catholic Bishops, Cardinals and maybe even the Pope might be legally liable for having committed felonies because of the "covering up" of these criminal acts by pedophile priests.

Now for those of you who are reading this and saying something like, "Oh, come ON, Scott!!!", I say to you, what do you call 660 MILLION DOLLARS in payoffs that were paid by ONE Archdiocese, which is located where I live. The Los Angeles Archdiocese. That $660,000,000 payoff was agreed to three years ago. That's "hush money", isn't it? And the Los Angeles Archdiocese isn't the only Archdiocese that's paid multi millions of dollars of "hush/settlement money". When you have knowledge of a crime (like so many church leaders did) instead of contacting the police, you "protect" these pedophile priests, doesn't that make you AN ACCESSORY TO THESE CRIMES?!? And shouldn't you be subject (if found guilty) to possible housing in an 8x12 prison cell?

Please don't forget that the crime is adult priests molesting, sexually abusing, forcing children to "pleasure them", etc., etc. I mean, we're not talking about some kind of "hip priest" sharing a joint or a beer with our children. We are talking about perverts who use church officials and God as their "cover" to SEXUALLY ABUSE OUR CHILDREN!!

Do some of you believe that because the people we're talking about are priests, bishops, cardinals or even the Pope are people who should be allowed to break laws or cover up laws that were broken because they're RELIGIOUS OFFICIALS?!?

I don't know about you, but if I knew that my kid had been molested by a priest and I found out about it 10-30 years later (or immediately) and I also found out that a church official above that priest had been covering up this despicable crime, I would want to shoot both of them. I'm not saying I WOULD do that, but I would want to. And after the murderous impulses had left me, I would try my best to see to it that law enforcement officials had the courage to treat these church officials like they would treat ME if I was guilty of forever altering the innocence of a child.

Thoughts and or comments about this Pedophile Priest business?!? Write to me at scottstjames@sbcglobal.net. I will respond to you immediately.

Before I switch to the entertainment stuff, a couple of other things...

We've all heard the criticism about "The Mainstream Media", right? As a rule, the people who do the vast majority of the hollering about "The Mainstream Media" are people who can't stand the idea of anyone being in a position of power who doesn't agree with them. "Them" being, people on the "right", right?

I don't know how you think about this, but isn't "The Mainstream Media" supposed to be the media that has the most readers, viewers or listeners?

If that's the case, isn't Fox News, "The Mainstream Media"?

Just askin'.

Speaking of Fox News...Sean Hannity is one of the big stars there. Did you hear about this "charity" of his? In addition to investigations that are being conducted, an outfit that "rates" charities has downgraded Hannity's charity that is supposed to help troops and their families.
Hannity's charity was rated a "4", but because of all the recent bad publicity that seems to consist of "fire" with the "smoke", the charity is now rated as a "2". I don't know what those numbers mean, but I do know up from down and Hannity's number is down.

For the record? I don't think Hannity is guilty of any kind of crime. There are a lot of legal ways you can play with "charity money".

For the record 2: Yo, Sean! The idea you're selling is a very good idea. As a veteran my ownself, what I'd like to see you do is make the reality of what you're selling match the hyperbole of what you're selling.

Entertainment Stuff...

Tuesday night's "American Idol" was the most entertaining "American Idol" show I've ever seen. The judges were involved (in a good way) more than they usually are, so was Ryan Seacrest and so were the performers, before and after they performed. Overall, the performances were better than usual, but I guess that's to be expected when the performers were singing songs that had been written by John Lennon and or Paul McCartney. Tonight's "American Idol" was extra special entertaining as well. Wednesday night is the night one of the performers is voted off the show. I won't spoil it for those of you who taped the show and haven't seen it yet, but I can tell you there was some "extra" high drama associated with these voting results.

Another good new episode of "The Good Wife" on CBS, Tuesday. Another good new episode of "Justified" on FX, Tuesday. This is a Timothy Olyphant starring show and it is very good. As is "Parenthood" which is on NBC, Tuesday with a rerun on Saturday. Gang, if you haven't seen "Parenthood", you have been missing a real treat.

This Sunday, you "Brothers & Sisters" fans might want to know that a 2-hour episode of that show will be on ABC from 9-11 (8-10 Central) that night.

A movie to be on the lookout for next year...

"Liberace". For those of you who don't know who he was, Liberace was a big time piano playing entertainer. After he died, there was some scandal associated with him and a male lover who claimed he (the lover) got AIDS from Liberace.

Liberace could be seen on any big variety show that was on television during the 60's and 70's and he was a Las Vegas Headliner up until the day he died. In the late 70's, a girl I was in love with, talked me into getting tickets to see Liberace when we were getting ready to go to Las Vegas for a few days. The only reason I agreed to get those tickets is because I was really in love with her. Otherwise, No WAY!!!

We had front row seats and I think the only thing that was on my mind was that I hoped no one I knew SAW me at this show!

The place was packed and once he came on the stage, I realized why. Charisma was dripping from this guy. In addition to his great piano playing and story telling, the one thing I never forgot was Liberace making fun of all of his jewelry and then walking from one end of the stage to the other and inviting people to "touch" his jewelry with the words, "Don't be bashful! YOU paid for them!!!"

I bring this up because a movie about Liberace is scheduled to be shot early next year which means it would probably be shown late next year. It will be directed by Steven Soderbergh and Michael Douglas will play Liberace. Matt Damon will play Liberace's lover.

THOUGHTS AND OR COMMENTS? Write to me at scottstjames@sbcglobal.net. I will respond to you immediately. If you write to the blog, there's no way for me to know your email address so I won't be able to respond to you. Again... scottstjames@sbcglobal.net All "Anonymous" emails are ignored.

THE NEXT BLOG? Barring something unforseen coming up, late Wednesday night, April 14. And I hope-plan to cover two subjects I've been saying I would cover the last couple of weeks or so. Said subjects being, "Death" and who or what was responsible for declaring "year 1" when it
was declared which led us to where we are now, which is "year 2010".